I recently participated in the webinar, “6 Critical Components to Maximizing Your Supply Chain Savings,” for the National Rural Health Association with our vice president Yolandi Myers and long-time client Ashley Kinder, director of finance at Rush Memorial Hospital.

To kick off the hour-long webinar on supply chain savings, we asked attendees to rate their current GPO relationship and received the following feedback:

I wasn’t surprised to see that 27% of attendees were unsure of how to rate their GPO relationship. This was the reason we decided to host a webinar to explain how to get the most out of this relationship. And, at CHAMPS (if you haven’t guessed it yet) we believe in six critical components – contract management, aggregation, supply chain technology, spend analytics, customized service and program perks. Though each of these components is critical, three of them definitely stand out:

1. Contract Management

Alignment is necessary in order to ensure your GPO is working on your behalf – helping you navigate the portfolio, identifying savings opportunities, handling price activation, managing contract renewals and more. An ideal GPO relationship would also include customized opportunities for your facility to save at a local level.

2. Aggregation Savings

Many national GPO contracts have tiered pricing. Partnering with a collaborative or regional GPO within your national alliance can help you get off of Tier 1 and increase savings for your facility.

3. Customized Service

Your GPO relationship will let you down at every turn without this critical component. Above all of the other items on our list, you need to be able to rely on your account manager to provide you with excellent service in order to maximize your savings.

We were pleased to hear first-hand feedback that we at CHAMPS Group Purchasing are “practicing what we preach,” when Ashley Kinder chimed in during the second half of our webinar, saying:

We have amazing communication with our [CHAMPS] account manager. We have monthly savings calls that are extremely beneficial. We discuss new contracts, expiring contracts, anything we’re concerned about, any new projects we have going on. We also have an annual business review which is a great time to sit down face-to-face and develop a plan for maximizing our savings.

Does this sound like what you are looking for in a GPO relationship? Contact us to learn more.